Mapping the Presidential Candidates

[Caesar]

Interested to find out how accurate this is, from people more in the know about the political climate in the US.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/USelection2004.gif

The site (www.politicalcompass.org (http://www.politicalcompass.org)) was developed by a political journalist and a professor of social/political history. They've done a ton of research and development on the site, and are apparently reasonably well-regarded in the UK. You can take the test and map yourself.

(OT, I would recommend the quotes quiz under 'Iconochasms' on the menu. It's a bit of an eye-opener, or at least it was for me.)

[BenReilly]

My score:

Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.00

[eneste]

I think that we have a thread about this test every year.

Economic Left/Right: -6.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.44

Looking at the chart, I reside in a political backwater.

[Caesar]

I think that we have a thread about this test every year. Hehe, I know. I mainly posted the thread because I wanted to get an idea about this chart in particular, which they put together fairly recently based on each candidate's campaign platforms.

[obie]

These are always fun, though.

Economic Left/Right: -0.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46

Basically what I thought -- right smack dab in the middle on economic issues, but socially liberal.

[eneste]

Yeah, they are fun. Though just because I think that corporations don't automatically have the public's best interests at heart and should be monitored hardly makes me a socialist.

[John Galt]

-2.3 left/right
-3.74 libertarian/authoritarian.

Same quadrant as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. So I got that going for me.

[GringoTex]

Economic Left/Right: -3.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08

[Karl K]

Centrist on social issues, libertarian on economic issues

Economic Left/Right: 4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.82

To the left of Milton Friedman.

Good company.

[Deuteriumoxide]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.95

Southwest of Ralph Nader and right in between nelson mandela and mahatma ghandi. I can live with that.

[SoFla Metro]

-2.3 left/right
-3.74 libertarian/authoritarian.

Same quadrant as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. So I got that going for me.
which is nice

[ratdog]

Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.21

To the great surprise of absolutely nobody.

[argentine soccer fan]

Here is mine:

Economic Left/Right: 2.75
Social Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.85

Weird. You will find me somewhere between Gandhi and Milton Friedman. Closer to Kerry than Bush. But I guess it doesn't measure our ranking of priorities for the different issues which we vote on.

[bright]

I don't particularly like the way the Political Compass portrays right/left in purely economic terms, since a lot of their "economic" questions are actually sociological questions which is what right/left is actually about anyways. Economic policy is a means to ends, and those ends can be either left or right in effect, i.e. propping up the aristocracy or tearing it down. When it comes to the free market, most leftists view it as right-wing, whereas I view it as neutral. You can have a free market with a leftist perspective, the two are not mutually exclusive. But I won't get into that in this thread.

Anyways, I took the test again to see if anything has changed since last time, and I am pretty much the same:

"Economic": -1.25
Social: -7.64

- Paul

[argentine soccer fan]

The problem is, many of the questions are the type that can only be answered in essay form. A yes-no answer is not satisfying, and does not really reflect a person's true position on the issue.

[afgrijselijkheid]

Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.92

[Metroweenie]

Economic Left/Right: 5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.15

In the same neighborhood as Friedman, Badnarik, and exactly no world leaders.

I think that quiz can overestimate the social authoritarian because there are a few questions that I agree/disagree with personally but don't think they have anything to do with government. (faith based schools, and sex in society, etc.)

[christopher d]

Economic Left/Right: -5.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.97

Hardly surprising, 'cept that I thought I'd be a little closer to center economically. Which I would have been, had "neither agree nor disagree" been an option. I mean, what the hell kind of question is "Multinational companies are unethically exploiting the plant genetic resources of developing countries."?